The Solitary Rambler

Whilst staying in the Lake District I decide to leave the car behind and catch the bus to Seatoller where my walk begins. Climbing up high I get wonderful views of Borrowdale before descending into the valley to follow a riverside path back towards Seatoller in time for a leisurely bus ride back to Keswick​.....

After I had finished filming on Thursday 2nd June 2016 for what would be my third film in the northern Lakes I decided I could film a fourth the following day. Making my way back towards Keswick after my day in Buttermere I drove through the Borrowdale valley stopping briefly in Seatoller en route to find out the cost of the village car park, where I thought I might park the next day. However, I discovered that it was exactly the same price to park there all day as it was to buy a return ticket on the local bus from Keswick to Seatoller, i.e. £7.00, so I decided it would be nice to leave my car for a change and take a ride on the bus.

On Friday 3rd June I caught the 9.20am bus service no.78 from Keswick to Seatoller. It was a double decker with an open top, so if you sat upstairs you needed to be prepared to duck several times due to overhanging trees! I alighted from the bus in Seatoller at 9.50am so began the day’s shoot by filming around the village. The walk I was going to do was from my guide book, which was a circular route in Borrowdale, so this started just up from Seatoller towards the eastern end of Honister Pass. This was, thankfully, the only real climb I had to do today, but the views were worth it and I captured some wonderful views across Borrowdale as I walked along. Passing Castle Crag I descended to the River Derwent and then on to the village of Grange. Having captured many shots in the village I followed the path back towards Seatoller, which moreorless ran alongside the river. When I finally made it back to Seatoller I managed to film the last few shots before the bus arrived to take me back to Keswick.

​I started work on the editing at the beginning of August 2016. I was struggling to come up with a musical soundtrack for “Beauty of Borrowdale”, so I went to my original Lake District song “Until I Return” and composed a slower piano version of the song. From this I developed a new short theme for the section of the film where I’m walking high above the Borrowdale valley towards Castle Crag.